In the Santiago Stadium

As a teenager I used to (i still do actually) sing along to these lyrics along with basically every Clash song there is. And of course, it led me to want to know more. – Who is this Victor Jara… and what happenned to him in a Santiago Stadium? And that led to me learn all about the wonderful Chilean singer and activist who was murdered before a stadium full of people, because he was a folk singer and sang about injustice and poverty.

Stadium. Injustice. Poverty. Murder. Sufferring. Hmmm.

September 11th.. 1973.. Chilean Military, led by General Pinochet and fully supported by the CIA and the American Government, carry out a coup to oust the newly elected president Salvador Allende. On that same day, they arrested countless, including Victor Jara. For those five September days, he was tortured and starved. Then on the 16th, he, along with many others, was led into the stadium and further beaten and brutalized. Some reports say they cut off his hands, while others say they broke his hands, and then they threw his guitar at him, and told him to play. Witnesses say he proceeded to sing in a most chilling and beautiful voice, a song supporting the coalition which had been democratically elected. The soldiers then opened fire on him with machine guns… then beat his dead body.

As every cell in Chile will tell
The cries of the tortured men
Remember Allende, and the days before,
Before the army came
Please remember Victor Jara,
In the Santiago Stadium,
Es verdad – those Washington Bullets again